Spring brings the rains, the sounds of birds, gardening, and the smell of …. self-tanner? Most of us feel like we look slimmer and healthier with some tan, but aren’t willing to take the health risks of a natural tan. The goal is the look of a natural tan, which has not always been so easy to obtain. Self-tanners of years past left us blotchy, unnaturally colored, and with orange palms.
Jergens was the first on the market to introduce a gradual self-tanner, which you apply daily as a moisturizer, and gradually develop a natural-looking tan. Because of the series of applications, the chance of uneven coloring is slim, and the user can stop reduce frequency when the desired color is achieved. But is being the first the same as being the best?
All self-tanners work on the same concept. The key ingredient is dihydroxyacetone(DHA). DHA is a colorless sugar that interacts with the dead cells located in the stratum corneum of the epidermis. As the sugar interacts with the dead skin cells, a color change occurs. The longer you can keep your dead skin cells, the longer you can keep your tan – thus you should exfoliate before using a self-tanner product. All products instruct the customer to apply daily, and wait “several days” for the tan to develop. As long as moisturizer is applied evenly, any small differences will even out over the course of the repeated application, and the color result will be even.
Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer and Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer are similar to each other and other self-tanners in many respects, but there are two key differences: scent and color.
Scent
Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer is a good product, but it has one big problem: the smell. All self-tanner products have some (similar) odor due to the DHA ingredients used. The odor can be masked with other scents, as is typical for moisturizers, but when the pleasant scent dissipates, the DHA scent remains. In fact, this scent was bad enough that even I, who am unfortunately as pale as death, did not find it to be worth the trade-off. Even I, the uber-frugal, threw away the remainder of the tube of lotion.
The other manufacturers needed some time to catch up, but in my opinion the best alternative to Jergens is Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer. While it still has some of the unavoidable DHA order, the scent is not unpleasant. Or at least, it is relatively more pleasant than competing products. Scent is a personal opinion, but most people on http://makeupalley.com have compared it to green tea. Some even felt that it had no scent.
Color
Although it is the worse choice for scent, Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer does provide more color with the same amount of application. This may the reason it has stronger scent. Most people do not feel this is a good trade-off, and simply use the “medium” tint of the Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer lotion instead of “light”. Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer comes in light or medium only. Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer provides darker color and offers more choices. Natural Glow Daily Moisturize comes in fair, medium, and medium-tan (dark), and also offers additional products (not reviewed)
Product Line-up
Neither product is appropriate for using on your face, for most people, because it is designed as body lotion and too thick and clogs pores on the face. For the face Jergens makes a separate product, which I have not yet reviewed. Jergens makes Jergens Natural Glow Face Daily Moisturizer, which I have not reviewed. A third option in the Natural Glow line-up is the Jergens Natural Glow Face Daily Moisturizer with SPF 20.
Hawaiian Tropic does not make a self-tanner product designed for the face. There are no other products in the Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer line-up.
Recommendation
I use and recommend the Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer. The color of Hawaiian Tropic Island Glow Daily Moisturizer is sufficient for me, and the scent of Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizer is a deal-breaker.
